Dear visitors to this site: There is much healthy thinking going on today concerning the meaning of baptism in Scripture and its function as a visual gospel aid in bringing souls to Christ and preparing them to receive repentance, forgiveness and the remission of sins and the blessedness of a life in the Spirit. I have been working some time on the teaching of John Bunyan and his friend Henry Jessey and their reasons behind their warning their brethren not to make a god out of baptism. They also warned those who saw in baptism a passport into a denomination or even the Church. Both men fellowshipped and pastored churches in which different forms of baptism were performed in the name of the Trinity and did not bar any Christian… Full Article
Articles
The Language of Baptism
Sep 6
The Covenant: Part Two What it is A Recapitulation In Part One we compared the ‘Testament’ and the ‘Covenant’ in the Bible. I felt it was necessary to point out the nature of the two clauses in Christ’s Legacy for us before going on to talk about God’s Covenant with His Son. All theories of covenants based on Dispensational grounds are wrong because they teach a discontinuous and not an eternal covenant in Christ. Again, the Covenant is not discontinuous, it is not divided, and it is not Dispensational. As Christ is the Author and Finisher and Keeper of the Covenant and is the same yesterday, today and for ever, His Covenant is permanent and everlasting. It stretches through all eternity, and thus cannot be… Full Article
I have had a good deal of correspondence lately over the nature of the Covenant between Christ and His Father. Some years ago, I gave two lectures at the New Focus Conference on the issue. As I have not the time to write any additional material, I am posting the two lectures on my web-site. If anyone wishes to take up the matter with me further, he or she is most welcome. George The Covenant: What it is not In commencing, I would like us to notice three things. 1. I do not say ‘Testament’ but the Covenant. 2. I do not say a Covenant between men or even a Covenant between God and men and certainly not a covenant between Gods. I say the Covenant. 3. I do not say the Covenant of Grace, nor the Covenant of… Full Article
Modern Anglicanism and Dissent no criteria for judging the immediate Post-Reformation period In the following essays, I will continue to look at the radical views of the proto-Presbyterians in general and Cartwright’s and Travers’ view of church discipline in particular, especially regarding the episcopacy, and compare them with those of Jewel and Hooker and other English Reformers who were true to the official Confessions of the Church of England at that time. Sadly, most of those critics who use Cartwright and certain contemporaries nowadays to bring the Church of England in Reformed times into disrepute cite what he allegedly said during his day and compare that with the sad state of the Church of England today. This is an… Full Article
A revolution in language and dress demanded It was during Hooker’s days that a major innovation occurred in English Protestant theology regarding the ministry of the church. It was initially a mere linguistic thrust encouraged by new, democratic ideas. As such, it was relatively harmless but the movement quickly took over republican and oligarchic ideals which eventually meant the end of the English Church, the English way of life and the English form of government. Most of these would-be ‘reformers’ felt they were bringing more effective organizational methods from the Continent into Britain and even adopted Continental dress to stress their reforming fervor. Actually, their views were so insular that the Continent… Full Article
Bible Reading: Romans 10:13-14. In the eighteenth century, an Evangelical Awakening swept through the western world ushered in through the medium of restored preaching. Never since the Reformation had earnest men taken to the highways and by-ways and preached to the multitudes with such power. Hundreds of thousands who had never cared for religion, found themselves drawn to it through the spoken Word. Stop: you might say. The Church is not a preaching factory. Preaching is of use in its right place but church worship, the communion of the saints and pastoral care are essentialities of church fellowship. We understand this and this conference and our Society do not neglect to teach about the inner fellowship shared by the… Full Article
The Real Teaching of Richard Hooker Dr Roger Beckwith opened his essay entitled ‘The Real Teaching of Richard Hooker’ by saying: Hooker was a second-generation Reformer. He did not have the task of distinguishing Anglican theology from that of Roman Catholics or Anabaptists. This had been done by the first-generation Reformers Cranmer and his colleagues, and their conclusions had been embodied in the Anglican formularies, especially the Thirty-nine Articles, from the teaching of which Hooker never strayed. Hooker’s task was the more sensitive one of defending Anglican theology against other Protestants, who wanted to alter it. His great book ‘The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity’ is this defence. He uses some new… Full Article
Chapter One: The myth that Knox ushered in the Scottish Reformation False claims regarding Knox as the Pioneer of Scotland’s Reformation John Knox, alias John Sinclair, is generally seen as the main pillar of the Scottish Reformation and his works are often regarded amongst evangelicals as the purest source of its history. Thus, James Edward McGoldrick, starts his Preface to his Luther’s Scottish Connections, with the words: ‘There is no doubt whatever that the Protestant Reformation in Scotland received its principle direction from the indomitable John Knox, a rigorous and courageous adherent to the Reformed version of evangelical teaching as espoused in Geneva by John Calvin and his disciples.’ … Full Article
Knox and Lever invited to pastor the Frankfurt church Acting under the words of our Lord concerning shaking off the dust and moving on where the gospel falls on barren ground, many English, Scottish and Irish Christians fled their countries when the tares of Mary’s bloody reign and French influence in Scotland choked true religion. Most of these exiles journeyed to Holland, Germany or Switzerland though others moved to far away Scandinavia, Austria and even Spain and Italy. Anywhere, it seemed, was safer than in Britain. The foreign churches which had been licensed by Edward also fled the country often to meet their English brethren again on the same church premises abroad. The main centres of these exiles on the Continent… Full Article
Ditzel’s Rebuttal Part Five
Dec 19
Dear Readers, This is the fifth answer to Ditzel’s fifth rebuttal but I now find that with a new publication on his site of his rebuttals, he has attached his sixth essay to the fifth which contains his criticisms of my dealing with John Murray. I have thus dealt with both essays together and there is thus no sixth coming up. God bless, George Ditzel’s culinary criticism Under the heading ‘Making Hash’, Ditzel starts by agreeing with Calvin, Gill and myself that faith is not the cause of our justification but the instrument by which we receive justification. He then asks the question, ‘How do we receive justification?’, though we have already been told correctly that it is by faith. Indeed, Gill uses the very… Full Article
